Nation news briefs

• JUMBO HUMBOLDT SQUID INVADE SOUTHERN CA WATERS: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Jumbo squid have invaded the Southern California waters and are being caught by sport fishermen by the hundreds

Fishermen went just four miles from Oceanside Sunday night to reel in 200 Humboldt squid.

The squid were first spotted on the surface a few days ago, and a boat captain told the newspaper they are scattered from the Mexican border to Dana Point in Orange County.

The squid are feeding on an abundance of krill that has come into the region’s water from tidal flows, and they’re typically at or near the surface when it’s dark.

The Humboldt squid is also called the jumbo squid or jumbo flying squid and squirts ink to protect itself.

• SON OF US SEN. RAND PAUL ARRESTED AT NC AIRPORT: CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Police say U.S. Sen. Rand Paul’s son was arrested after a flight from Kentucky to North Carolina.

William Hilton Paul, 19, was arrested Saturday morning at Charlotte Douglas International Airport and charged with alcohol-related offenses.

The newspaper quotes Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lt. Blake Hollar as saying it’s possible Paul was served alcohol on the flight from Lexington, Ky., to Charlotte.

When the plane landed shortly before 11 a.m., the son of the Republican senator from Kentucky and grandson of former presidential candidate Ron Paul was charged with consuming beer/wine underage, disorderly conduct and being intoxicated and disruptive.

• NEWTOWN SETS UP TASK FORCE TO HANDLE DONATIONS: NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Chris Kelsey is the tax assessor in Newtown, but for the better part of three weeks, his job has been setting up and organizing a warehouse to hold the toys, school supplies and other gifts donated in the wake of the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary school.

Despite the town’s pleas to stop sending gifts, Kelsey said trucks have been arriving daily with tokens of support from across the world, some for the families of those killed, others for the children of Sandy Hook, still others for the town.

A task force has been set up to coordinate the more than 800 volunteers who have been working to sort the gifts, open mail and answer the thousands of emails and phone calls offering assistance.

The volunteers have begun making a dent in the pile of tens of thousands of teddy bears that stretched to the warehouse ceiling. By last week, they had sorted 30,000 of them into small, medium and large sizes, catalogued them and put them in boxes. They are also separating and boxing piles of crayons, pencils, books and much more.

• SC WOMAN, OLDEST LIVING US CITIZEN, DIES AT 114: A 114-year-old South Carolina woman who was the oldest living U.S. citizen has died, two of her daughters said Saturday.

Mamie Rearden of Edgefield, who held the title as the country’s oldest person for about two weeks, died Wednesday at a hospital in Augusta, Ga., said Sara Rearden of Burtonsville, Md., and Janie Ruth Osborne of Edgefield. They said their mother broke her hip after a fall about three weeks ago.

Gerontology Research Group, which verifies age information for Guinness World Records, listed Mamie Rearden as the oldest living American after last month’s passing of 115-year-old Dina Manfredini of Iowa. Rearden’s Sept. 7, 1898, birth was recorded in the 1900 U.S. Census, the group’s Robert Young said.

Rearden was more than a year younger than the world’s oldest person, 115-year-old Jiroemon Kimura of Japan.

• NYC IPHONE OWNER TRICKS THIEF USING DATING APP: NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City musician used a combination of technology, seduction, a hammer and a bribe to reclaim his missing iPhone from a confused crook.

Jazz trombonist Nadav Nirenberg says he left the phone in a livery cab on New Year’s Eve. The next morning, the 27-year-old learned via email that someone was sending messages to women using a dating app on the phone.

Nirenberg logged on to the service and offered the man a date — posing as a woman. He even posted a picture of a pretty girl.

When the culprit arrived at Nirenberg’s Brooklyn apartment building with wine, the musician greeted him with a $20 bill while holding a hammer — just in case.